I recently read Northanger Abbey with an online book group that's part of the Bonnets at Dawn Facebook page.
I read all the Austen novels when I was in college, but I've very much enjoyed rereading Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Rereading Northanger Abbey was kind of a revelation. The thing that I enjoyed the most was also the thing that surprised me most: Northanger Abbey is a comedy. All the novels are comedies, but this one is among the most light-hearted. Austen presents its heroine as an average woman of marriageable age, which means that she, like her peers, is mad for Gothic novels. The tone of the novel throughout is satirical but in a kind-hearted way, and funny. Although I really disliked the character of John Thorpe and found his company oppressive, a lot about him was funny. His love of gossip is the device by which the plot turns.
I read all the Austen novels when I was in college, but I've very much enjoyed rereading Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Rereading Northanger Abbey was kind of a revelation. The thing that I enjoyed the most was also the thing that surprised me most: Northanger Abbey is a comedy. All the novels are comedies, but this one is among the most light-hearted. Austen presents its heroine as an average woman of marriageable age, which means that she, like her peers, is mad for Gothic novels. The tone of the novel throughout is satirical but in a kind-hearted way, and funny. Although I really disliked the character of John Thorpe and found his company oppressive, a lot about him was funny. His love of gossip is the device by which the plot turns.
Austen wrote Northanger Abbey at a time when the novels of Ann Radcliffe, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho, were wildly popular. In fact, in Austen's novel, the heroine, Catherine Morland, and her friend, Isabella Thorpe, are both readers of The Mysteries of Udolpho. The Monk, published in 1796, is also discussed by John Thorpe in the novel. John Thorpe is Catherine Morland's false suitor, the man who is interested in her but in whom she has not interest, who is less attractive than the hero, possibly morally deficient, and who is not destined to win the heroine. The fact that he is enthusiastic about The Monk and recommends it to Catherine is a sign that Austen does not hold The Monk in high regard.
Northanger Abbey is a satire on the Gothic novel. There's nothing sensational (except Catherine's youthful imaginings) in the novel; in fact, when Henry Tilney, Catherine's host and chief romantic interest, attempts to convince her that her Gothic novel-inspired suspicions of his father are fantasy, he asks her to consider that she is living in England (rather than the Italy of the Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk) where, Tilney presumes, the rule of law and difficulty of keeping anything secret in the small towns of the English countryside make it unlikely that a murder could be kept secret for years.
Northanger Abbey opens in Bath, where Catherine is visiting as a guest of her well-to-do neighbors, the Allens. She meets Henry Tilney at the Assembly Rooms, a Bath institution that offered programming: dances, concerts, educational lectures, and concerts. The real purpose of the Assembly Rooms was, like the opera, to provide a place where one could see and be seen, where young women could display themselves and young men could meet them.
When Catherine meets Henry Tilney, she finds him charming. He certainly has plenty of conversation! In a world without raves and 501 jeans, conversation was a very important part of the courting process, so no little thing. But to modern sensibilities, Henry Tilney seems like a mansplainer, a patronizing, condescending, know-it-all.
What was so lovely about this "read-along" and discussion was that it was the consensus of most readers that while Henry started out as a rather predictable and annoying mansplainer, he grew to respect Catherine's values, intelligence, and sincerity. This new view of Henry Tilney catapulted him from being low in my estimation amongst Austen romantic heroes to exceeding Captain Wentworth to take the crown.
As a fan of Fanny Burney's Evelina, I'd like to point out that while Northanger Abbey is very different from Evelina, it share the same essential plot: a young, innocent girl enters society and has a number of misadventures where she makes a number of socially awkward mistakes and violates the rules of polite society with which she is unfamiliar. In both tales, virtue triumphs.
Northanger Abbey is a satire on the Gothic novel. There's nothing sensational (except Catherine's youthful imaginings) in the novel; in fact, when Henry Tilney, Catherine's host and chief romantic interest, attempts to convince her that her Gothic novel-inspired suspicions of his father are fantasy, he asks her to consider that she is living in England (rather than the Italy of the Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk) where, Tilney presumes, the rule of law and difficulty of keeping anything secret in the small towns of the English countryside make it unlikely that a murder could be kept secret for years.
Northanger Abbey opens in Bath, where Catherine is visiting as a guest of her well-to-do neighbors, the Allens. She meets Henry Tilney at the Assembly Rooms, a Bath institution that offered programming: dances, concerts, educational lectures, and concerts. The real purpose of the Assembly Rooms was, like the opera, to provide a place where one could see and be seen, where young women could display themselves and young men could meet them.
When Catherine meets Henry Tilney, she finds him charming. He certainly has plenty of conversation! In a world without raves and 501 jeans, conversation was a very important part of the courting process, so no little thing. But to modern sensibilities, Henry Tilney seems like a mansplainer, a patronizing, condescending, know-it-all.
What was so lovely about this "read-along" and discussion was that it was the consensus of most readers that while Henry started out as a rather predictable and annoying mansplainer, he grew to respect Catherine's values, intelligence, and sincerity. This new view of Henry Tilney catapulted him from being low in my estimation amongst Austen romantic heroes to exceeding Captain Wentworth to take the crown.
As a fan of Fanny Burney's Evelina, I'd like to point out that while Northanger Abbey is very different from Evelina, it share the same essential plot: a young, innocent girl enters society and has a number of misadventures where she makes a number of socially awkward mistakes and violates the rules of polite society with which she is unfamiliar. In both tales, virtue triumphs.
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